~ Weight, Sex, and Marriage (and Motherhood); aka How to Raise Adrenaline Starved Thrill-seekers and Still be Fat and Happy.

I May Have to Kill My

I’m sorry, I know this is not a nice thing to say – I’m prepared to blame the tactless nature of the title of this post on my self-induced regimen of skipping the “menopause” pill every other day (Tony: “Tell me again, why you are doing this?”), but the real culprit is clearly our lack of skills when it comes to “mastering” anything (that’s the problem with being wimpy worrywarts, one is never the alpha dog).

To make a long story short, the dog has somehow developed this intense separation anxiety (are we giving off some sort of “empty nest” pheromone that is causing him to overcompensate for our new found freedom?). We went out to dinner with Kelly and her boyfriend Alex and while we were out, according to our new neighbor, the dog (note his new name) barked for four hours. Our new neighbor is a Japanese exchange student with limited English skills, so what she actually said, “Dog very sad, he misses you, I go up to wave at him (which explains why everything in the window seat was on the floor), and he BARKED FOR FOUR HOURS!”

Last time we were out he tried to scratch his way through the door, this time he tried to open the door with his teeth. Twenty-two years of child rearing: baby safety classes, fear of leaving the baby with a sitter, years of hiring, paying for, and driving (in awkward silence) the babysitter home (“So how’s school?” – this was Tony’s job, hence, awkward silence), calling the LTPD to find out when it is legal to leave one’s child at home alone (age 13), discovering this home alone time has a short window (age 15 1/2), hiding all of the alcohol in the house, discovering the alcohol one hid has been replaced with water, graduation, empty nest, dog . . . Are you telling me we can’t walk down to the Mexican food place because of the dog!!!

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9 thoughts on “I May Have to Kill My”

i think that cassidy’s behaviors are pretty classic dog behaviors and you can probably find training techniques quite easily on the internet. He is probably trying to find his way home to Tahoe!!! Love from your wimpy mom friend (but i am at peace with my wimpy mom-ness…)

I am always amazed at my dogs intuitive ways…….. Just when you think they’re not noticing…..they are. Sounds like Cassidy has been through some changes as well; moving and the kids gone. When Skyler moved out to be closer to college, my dogs were noticeably depressed. Good Luck!

I can understand your confusion. My blog takes place over several decades (I’ve kept a journal since I was 10). Our kids recently moved out and my husband and I are starting a new phase of our lives. We are at one of those pivotal points in time when one takes in everything that has happened thus far and are trying to figure out what happens next (I think the “Graduating” post explains it best). The “honey lets have another baby” (which I was not hoping for because I just lost 100 pounds), was an excerpt from 1997.

I think everyone should have to train a dog (or a horse) before attempting children. But then again, that was the subject of my evening post today. Good luck with the dog. I finally broke one of ours of that…she has to stay in the yard while we are gone, with an electronic fence…she digs out of the yard. Sheesh.
Red.